Ahuva Schwartz (MMY, 5768)(Katamon, Private Chef)

It's been seven years since I walked the halls of MMY as a student, and while a lot has changed, a lot has remained the same. MMY may be in a different location and have some new teachers, but its core values, strong integrity, and incredible warmth are completely the same.

Since I have been a student of MMY in 5768, I have left only to come back. Twice. After returning from Israel in the summer of 2008, I went to Stern College where I majored in early childhood education. A year after completing Stern, I made aliyah and went straight to being a madricha at MMY. I was coming to Israel pretty much on my own but I wasn't worried. I was returning to my old home away from home, MMY.

After being a madricha I spent a year working for Kedma (the organization most famous for partnering with Yeshiva University in running the annual inter-seminary choir competition) as their health projects coordinator. I ran Kedma’s bone marrow drives at seminaries and yeshivas and was in charge of overseeing the medical clown internship program, which was the chesed I did as a student in MMY.

And now I have brought my programming skills to MMY where I returned to the faculty this year as the program coordinator. My job consists of coordinating trips and special programming to enhance our students' Shana BaAretz.

When I was a student at MMY, if I wasn’t in class or the Beit Midrash I was cooking. Cooking has turned into my passion and that's something I realized while studying in MMY. While a student, I started out baking birthday cakes for my friends. But then I turned it into something more. Once a week, for a small fee to cover the cost of food, I would cook what a few girls requested or I would create something that I thought they would enjoy. Suffice to say there were never any leftovers. That Thanksgiving, I along with a few of my friends cooked an entire Thanksgiving feast, including a whole turkey (I might have left class once or twice to baste it). The meal was enjoyed by students, madrichot and even some administrators. It was so successful that I catered MMY's Purim Seuda for the entire school. Each of these cooking experiences at MMY allowed me to realize that creating happiness through cooking is a passion of mine and something I wanted to share on a deeper level.

This past year I was able to turn that passion into something real. I am currently a private chef for a family in Jerusalem where I am given the freedom to use my culinary imagination daily. I also began a blog, and an Instagram page titled The Katamon Kitchen where I share my ideas and recipes with people from all over the world. Each time someone "likes" my post or how much they enjoyed the recipe I inspired them to try, I am reminded of what made me start to cook at MMY all those years ago.

I hope to continue making people happy with food and to provide for MMY’s students the same incredible experience that I had and few yummy treats along the way.